CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 3 



suaded was Columbus of its truth and certaintv, that 



j ' 



he continued to assert his belief of it after the disco- 

 very of Cuba and Hispaniola; not doubting that those 

 islands constituted some part of the eastern extremi- 

 ty of Asia: and the nations of Europe, satisfied with 

 such authority, concurred in the same idea. Even 

 when the discovery of the Pacific ocean had demon- 

 strated his mistake, all the countries which Columbus 

 had visited still retained the name of the Indies ; and 

 in contradistinction to those at which the Portuguese, 

 after passing the cape of Good Hope, had at length 

 arrived by an eastern course, they were now deno- 

 minated the Indies of the West. \ 



Among the geographers of those days, however, 

 there were some, who envying the glory of Colum- 

 bus, or giving more credit to ancient fable than to the 

 atchievements of their cotemporaries, persisted in as- 

 signing to the newly-discovered islands the appella- 

 tion of Antitia or Antiles: the name (according to 

 Charlevoix) of an imaginary country, placed in ancient 



Portuguese were pursuing." From this account, for which the reader is 

 indebted to the learned Dr. Robertson, it is evident, that the scheme of 

 Columbus was founded on rational systematical principles, according to 

 the light which his age afforded j whereas, if he had proposed, without any 

 such support, to discover a new hemisphere by sailing westward j he would 

 have been justly considered as an arrogant and chimerical projector, and 

 success itself would not have reconciled his temerity to the sober dictates 

 of reason. 



\ Columbus sailed on his first voyage the 3d of August, 1491. In 

 14^4. Bartholemus Dias discovered the cape of Good Hope; but it was 

 not doubled till the year 1497, when Vasquez de Garna succeeded (for 

 the first time in modern navigation) in this, as it was then supposed, for- 

 midable attempt. 



